Double Edged Saber
by Lost-Girl-Flying-High
Summary: SPOILERS FOR THE RISE OF SKYWALKER! A reimagined ending/sequel for TROS. Rey knows that something is wrong about Ben's fate, but she isn't sure what it is. Something big is happening and she needs to find out what it is, before it's too late for both of them.
1. Chapter 1

A dyad in the force, two halves of the same whole. That's what Palpatine had said, and what Ben had told her as well, the day they went to rescue Chewy from the First Order ship. She thought they had just been lying to her, trying to manipulate her. But she had seen the wonder in Palpatine's eyes when he had discovered that Ben had followed her to the site of the Sith throne on Exegol. He wanted their power. Rey also knew it was true by the pain she felt as Ben had turned lifeless in her arms. She knew it by the empty feeling pervading her mind.

She reached out to Ben through the force, hoping to reassure herself that she was somehow wrong about his death by feeling his familiar presence at the other end of their bond, but was horrified to discover that it had been severed. No, perhaps severed wasn't the right way to describe it. It was more like their bond had snapped like a piece of rope pulled too taut and left with the edges frayed and raw.

Tears welled in her eyes as she nearly toppled over in her haste to check on Ben when he fell, and, blinking back tears, she began to notice him.. _fading_. Dematerializing. His body vanished and his clothes collapsed flat without their wearer.

Rey took a panicked breath and reached out again. The sharp jolt of pain she felt at the frayed end of their bond caused her to let out a loud help that echoed off the walls just as they started to collapse.

Realizing she had no option but to leave immediately, Rey haphazardly gathered Ben's clothing, threw it in her bag, and ran out as quickly as she could to Luke's X-wing.

She wasn't sure why she'd grabbed his clothes, and she pondered about it as she flew away through the wreckage of the battle. Perhaps it was because she could no longer feel his presence in the force and felt that the tangible reminder of him would soothe the pain. Or maybe it was because she couldn't stand to see his only physical remains left in the throne room of the Sith after he had finally put Kylo Ren to rest and come to her aid against the Emperor.

She thought upon several of these theories before finally reaching the conclusion that the only reason she really knew to be true was that leaving them just felt wrong. Any other reason didn't really matter in the end.

Arriving back on Yavin 4, Rey frantically sought out Poe and Finn in the crowd of celebrating rebels. She cling to them, tears of relief falling down her face at the sight of both of them safely back from the battle. Her relief didn't last long though, she knew she had to speak with them urgently.

"Rey, we get it, he's dead, but… shouldn't that be a good thing? He's been trying to kill all of us since before any of us even met him. How could his death be anything other than a miracle?" Poe asked, gesticulating wildly and running a hand through his hair as he paced back and forth across the room.

"Because something is wrong about his death, I can feel it. Or I guess more specifically I can't feel it. When people die, their presence remains in the force, like how some Jedi can communicate with the living as Force ghosts. But with Ben, his presence is just...gone. it's like he's been ripped out of the fabric of existence," Rey explained. "And what's worse is that when our bond was severed, I could feel my ability to connect with the force starting to fade."

"Hold on, back it up a minute. What do you mean 'your bond?' You mean Ren has been inside your head?" Finn asked, looking shocked and angry at this information.

"Well, yes, but I don't think that really matters right now," Rey deflected, trying to remain calm.

"Of course it matters, Rey! It could have gotten us all killed! Ren could have known where we were and what we were doing at literally _any_ time and we would have had no idea!" Finn shot back, clearly very worked up.

"That really isn't how it works, Finn," Rey reassured him, "Any time either of us reached out through the bond, we could always feel the other's presence. We could see each other and speak to each other most of the time as well, so it's not like I didn't know when he was using the bond, and I put up as many barriers as I could to keep us safe when I needed to."

"Okay, so moving on for right now, but believe me when I say we're coming back to that later… even if his death isn't a good thing, what are we supposed to do about it? I mean, he's dead, Rey, I don't think we can fix _dead_," Poe said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"That's the thing. I… I don't think he is dead. If he was dead, I would be able to feel that, like I did with Luke, or with Leia, or even when Han was killed. I felt all of their deaths and can still feel their presence in the Force, but this isn't like that at all. It's different somehow, and I need to find out why before I'm cut off as well."

"Can you run that part by me again? I still don't understand how Ren dying," he paused upon seeing the flash of dark emotion flickering across Rey's face, "er… I mean, being cut off from the Force or whatever, has to do with you being cut off from it too. I mean, are we sure that's what's causing it? Were you injured during the fight with Palpatine? Could that be causing it instead?" Poe continued, very tired, very confused, and just a little bit annoyed.

"I wasn't just injured, Poe, I was dead," Rey said, starting to shake slightly as the emotions flooded back to her in full force. "It was Palpatine, he wanted me to kill him and take the Sith throne. He tried to convince me that I would be able to stop the battle, stop the first order, save all of you. I almost believed him. But Ben, he found me, helped me defeat Palpatine. In the end, Palpatine's own power caused his death, but both Ben and I were badly injured in the fight. I was killed in the backlash of Palpatine's destruction, but Ben healed me. He brought me back to life even though he was already really hurt. And then he just… collapsed and vanished into thin air. At first I just thought he was dead, but something doesn't feel right. There's something else, too. Something Palpatine said. He said we were a dyad in the Force. Two halves of a single whole. I think that's why whatever happened to Ben is also affecting me."

Finn and Poe looked back and forth between each other and Rey for several long moments before Poe finally sighed heavily, breaking the silence. "Alright then, so what do we do to fix it?" He asked, looking expectantly at Rey.

"I don't really know yet," Rey answered truthfully, pushing a few stray wisps of hair back from her forehead. "I need to talk to Luke, he must know something that can help. I need to go back to Ahch-To."

"I'm sure you're anxious to sort this out fast, but I think you should wait until tomorrow to start doing anything else that's stupid and reckless. Right now a shower and a hot meal should help you feel a little better, and you need to get cleared by a medic before you go off on another suicide mission. Can you at least do that much for us before you leave, Rey?" Poe requested, trying to at least talk a little bit of sense into her.

Rey looked down at herself for the first time since the battle. She was covered in grime. Mostly sweat and dirt, with small chunks of rubble stuck to her skin and tangled in her hair and clothes. She also had multitudes of cuts and scrapes covering any patches of exposed skin, and she could see bruises starting to form all over her.

As much as she wanted to start looking for answers right away, she knew that her friends were right. Her journey could wait until morning, but right now she needed to take care of herself first or she wouldn't be in any shape to start such a daunting task.

"Yeah, I think a shower is a good idea."


	2. Chapter 2

The warm water pattered softly against Rey's skin, soothing the aching pain left over from the battle. She stared absently at the shower floor, watching in a trance-like state of fascination as the water mingled with the grime and blood washing off her skin, turning a rusty brown color as it swirled down the drain.

Tears fell silently down her face, leaving streaks of clean skin in their wake. The stinging pain she had felt from her bond with Ben snapping had filled into a throbbing ache constantly present in the back of her mind, but these tears were caused by the confusing mix of emotions swirling in her mind.

She didn't know how long she stayed there staring at the drain, but eventually she composed herself and finally began to wash away the grime of the battle.

Rey stepped out of the shower, shrouded in a thick cloud of steam. Quickly, she found a set of clean clothes and got dressed, then ran a brush through her damp hair before heading out the door in search of Poe and Finn. She found them sitting at a table with Rose and Chewy, eating dinner.

"We started to think you weren't coming," Rose said as Rey took a seat in the last empty chair at the table. "We saved some food for you, but it probably isn't very warm anymore, sorry."

Rey thanked her and quickly grabbed the food. Rose was right. The food wasn't very good to start with, and it was even worse cold, but that didn't seem to bother Rey, who scarfed it down ravenously. She hadn't realized how hungry she'd been, or how tired, but as she ate and chatted idly with her friends, she began to feel exhaustion crash over her in a wave that made her mind foggy and her eyelids heavy. Before she had even noticed, she had fallen asleep with her head on the table.

She looked so peaceful in her sleep that none of them could bear to wake her, so Finn carried her to her room, trailed closely by Poe.

"We can't seriously just let her go off on a stupid dead end chase like this, right? I mean, he's obviously dead, and even if he isn't, what are we supposed to do? Just welcome him with open arms after everything he's done? He's killed hundreds of people, if not more, how can we just ignore that?" Poe asked as soon as the door shut, leaving him and Finn alone in the hallway.

"We don't ignore it," Finn answered. "We can't ever forget what he's done, but Rey is going to do this whether we want her to or not. I say we let her do whatever she needs to do and figure out how to deal with it later."

Poe sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Fine," he grumbled, "But I'm not going. I just can't."

"I get it, Poe, I really do. He's a murderer and you can't justify going after him. Fortunately, I don't think we'll have to. I think this is something Rey wants to do alone."

Finn, as usual, was right. By the time they woke in the morning, Rey wasn't in her room, and Luke's X-wing was gone too. She left a note on her nightstand explaining that she needed to do this on her own and that she would check in with them every once in a while so they wouldn't worry.

Rey arrived on Ahch-To just in time. Her legs had started to go numb and the cramped cockpit of the X-wing had begun to make her feel claustrophobic. The fresh island air filled her lungs as she clambered out of the shop and tumbled to the ground, realizing just a moment too late that her numb legs wouldn't support her weight.

She let out a frustrated groan and her back hit the ground, but a familiar laugh sent her scrambling up off the ground.

"Master Luke!" She exclaimed, shocked.

"Who else?" He asked, still laughing at her unfortunate tumble. "You came here to talk to me, didn't you? Were you expecting Master Yoda instead?"

"Yes, I do need to talk to you. I have so many questions and I don't know who else would have the answers," Rey blurted out, feeling very overwhelmed.

"Well, before I can answer anything, I need to know the questions, and before you can ask anything, you need to collect yourself and calm your mind " Luke's ghost took a seat on a nearby rock and gestured for Rey to do the same. She sat cross-legged on the rock opposite him and closed her eyes, taking several deep breaths as she tried to center herself.

"What's a dyad?" She asked, starting with the simplest of her many questions. When Luke simply raised an eyebrow, she continued,

"Palpatine said that Ben Solo and I were a dyad in the force. Something about two halves of a whole. But I don't really know what all that means and Ben is gone and my connection with the force is starting to fade and I don't even know where to start trying to fix this, and -"

Luke held up a hand to silence her. He pondered on her questions for a moment, stroking his beard in thought. He had heard of the concept before, of course, but true dyads were so rare that most people didn't even believe they really existed.

"I'm afraid I don't really know much about this, Rey. I hate to disappoint you, but this is such an incredibly rare kind of bond that I've never really learned anything about them. I don't even think there's more than a mention of two of them in the sacred texts, and they don't go into detail about them at all. I'll help you however I can, but I don't think I'm the right person to be asking," Luke said, shaking his head. Rey felt the crush of disappointment for just a brief moment before a rush of force energy surrounded them as they were joined by the small green form of Master Yoda's Force ghost.

"Answers, you seek," Yoda commented in his quiet, croaking voice, "but hard to find, I think they will be."

"Yes, I'm starting to see that," Rey agreed, somewhat bitterly. "Do you know anything about this, Master?"

"Many things, I know. But about your predicament, I do not. Long hidden, these secrets have been. Find them, you must."

Rey sighed, trying not to get frustrated with Master Yoda for his cryptic non-answers. She had come here to learn about what happened to Ben, and what was happening to her, but now she just felt more confused. Luke didn't have any answers for her, but at least the familiarity of her old master had brought her some comfort. Master Yoda's sudden appearance, on the other hand, was baffling to her. She didn't reach out to him, he had just come of his own volition, but why go to all this effort if he didn't have any information to give her.

"Master Yoda, of course I'm happy to see you, but you must have something to tell us or you wouldn't have come," Luke said, as impatient as ever.

"Right you are, Skywalker. Information I have not, but clues and insight I can offer instead." Yoda sighed, hobbling over to Luke and taking a seat next to him.

"An explanation first, I should give. Shrouded in mystery, the origins of the Sith and the Jedi are. Lost to the sands of time, many things have been. Find them, you must, if you are to save young Ben Solo and yourself."

"You think Ben is alive?" Rey asked in disbelief. "I thought something felt off, but I just couldn't let myself really believe it in case I was wrong."

"More trust in the force you should have, and in yourself, Rey. Much anguish I sense from you. Wounded you deeply the loss of your bond with the young Solo has, hmm?"

All Rey could do was nod. Upon the very mention of her bond with Ben, the pain in the back of her head swelled from it's dull ache back into a stabbing pain assaulting her head like it had felt when the bond had first snapped.

Taking several deep breaths, Rey pushed the pain out of her thoughts, forcing it to return to its dull, constant pain. It still hurt, but at least she had regained her ability to form some coherent thoughts.

"But how do you know he's alive, Master Yoda? I can't feel him through the force at all. It's like he's just gone. How can you gain information from a source that doesn't exist?" Rey asked. Although she had already defended her belief in Ben's survival to to Poe and Finn, she still felt the need to understand how she had reached that conclusion despite her lack of information.

"Lots of time I have spent, making myself one with the force. Much trust I place in how it guides me, and so much trust I must place in my own intuition." Master Yoda's explanation didn't really help Rey understand any better, but she trusted him, and that would have to be enough.

"A dangerous journey you must make. Travel to Moraband, you should, if answers you wish to find. Abandoned for many years it has been, but full of secrets it remains."

"Master Yoda, you can't possibly be considering sending her there!" Luke exclaimed, his expression a mix of shock and rage. "It's the heart of the original Sith order! It's way too risky!"

"Balance in the force, she must truly understand, if she is to save young Ben. To Moraband she must go, and then to Tython. Find many answers there, I think she will."

"I'm right here!" Rey exclaimed after a few more minutes of arguing between Luke and Yoda. Very few things in life truly angered her, but being talked about as if she wasn't there and being treated like a child were two of the highest on the list. If Master Yoda thought answers would be waiting for her on Moraband, then…

"I'm going to Moraband. I'll set out first thing tomorrow morning."


	3. Chapter 3

Soft slivers of light filtered through the gaps in the bricks of the small but Rey had slept in the night before. The porgs began to chatter on the ridge as the sun rose, warming the ocean breeze as it drifted inland.

Rey woke peacefully, blinking a few times in the dim light of the hut, before stretching out and finally rising from the bed and pulling on her boots. Her troubles from the last few days hadn't quite caught up to her mind yet as she slipped out the doorway, standing for a few brief moments just outside, pack slung over her shoulder. She paused there with her eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face and the warm, earthy smell of the grassy island.

Sighing deeply, Rey opened her eyes and started down the slope of the hill to the X-wing. She had forgotten how peaceful Ahch-To could be, and the isolation it offered from other people was a welcome change. There was something so peaceful and pure about the planet. It was one of the few places left that had been left virtually untouched by sentient life, and more so one that had been left unscarred by any of the many wars fought throughout the galaxy. Yet, despite its isolated nature, Ahch-To hummed with the energy of the force. It cycled with the tide, floated on the breeze, and blossomed with the plants; a great web of energy that hummed with the very life of the planet.

She could understand why Master Luke had chosen this world to become a hermit, and laughed briefly at the fact that she had tried to do the same. She did wish that she could stay there forever, just enjoying the calm and quiet, but she had more important things to do right now.

Rey smiled bitterly as she packed the last of her supplies into the X-wing and took one last look out at the sun rising over the hilltop. She would have to bring Ben here when she found him. He needed someplace this peaceful.

She punched in the coordinates she had found in the Jedi texts for Moraband and sighed as the X-wing rose off the ground before speeding away from Ahch-To.

The trip to Moraband wasn't a short one, and she was almost certain that she'd gotten completely lost by the time she spotted it on the horizon. This planet somehow looked even more bleak and depressing than she'd already imagined, and the horrible energy left here by years and years of Sith occupancy left a queasy, nervous feeling in her mind that set her on edge.

The X-wing touched down softly on the desolate surface of Moraband, kicking up a small cloud of reddish dust as it did. Rey had read about this place in the sacred texts, and had heard a brief description of it from Master Yoda the night before, but it still hadn't prepared her for how disgusted it actually made her feel. The moment her feet hit the ground she was filled with a feeling of hatred and rage that she knew did not belong to her. It belonged to the planet, and all of the Sith who had aided in the corruption of its energy.

Rey pushed this energy down, knowing that if she was going to learn what she needed from Moraband, she would have to keep a level head. That wouldn't be an especially easy task, either, considering that she had only ever felt this much raw negative energy in the throne room on Exegol. Master Yoda had sent her there seeking something that would help her understand balance better, so she tried her best to keep an open mind about being here. There had been many atrocities committed here, but she was not here to right them, she was simply here to learn. She knew she would never agree with them, but she needed to detach from that if she was ever going to be able to gain any knowledge from this place, a tangible piece of their terrible legacy.

Rey paused for another moment, observing her full surroundings. She knew that this world had been abandoned by sentient life for ages, but it never hurt to make sure an exit strategy was always available.

It really would have been nice to know what exactly she was supposed to be looking for here, as Master Yoda had so helpfully left that part out. But, trust in the Force, he had said, so despite her discomfort, she sat on the ground and tried to meditate.

Her connection with the Force had continued to weaken since Ben's disappearance, and coupling that with her hesitance to let herself connect with the energy of Moraband, she was having a very hard time gaining more than just a general sense of direction about where to go. That, she supposed, would have to be good enough. With a frustrated grumble, she stood, following the pull of the Force.

As she reached the top of the hill, she paused and surveyed the Valley of the Dark Lords awaiting her at the bottom. She had read about it and seen a few drawings in the texts, but she had expected it to be falling down, dusty, and just generally decrepit like the rest of the planet was. Instead, it looked pristine somehow, spared from the passage of time. The towering stone monuments were free of dust, almost looking as though they had been recently cleaned. The courtyard and entrance to the temple also were meticulously clean, a task that would take a team of people several hours to complete, and yet, there was no one around to do all of this cleaning. She could sense through the Force that not a single living soul had been here in a very, very long time.

Cautiously, Rey began to make her way down the hill to the valley below, not taking her eyes off the valley of monuments awaiting her, as if they would banish if she were to so much as blink.

When she reached the bottom, she carefully set one foot, then the other onto the stone courtyard, feeling her uneasiness begin to grow. Looking around her from down here, she realized just how huge this place really was. She was utterly dwarfed by the statues, the smallest of which must have stood at least 50 feet high, and it made her feel suddenly very small and very weak in comparison, although she supposed that's what they were meant to do.

Rey walked the length of the courtyard a few times, inspecting each monument carefully. Each one had a name and two dates, birth and death, she assumed. Against her better judgement, she cautiously approached one of the statues, the only one not kept in pristine condition, and used her hand to wipe away the dust covering the inscription. The statue had only one date listed on it, and the name read Darth Zannah. As soon as her hand brushed over the inscribed name, she felt a huge rush of energy, knocking her back from the statue and sending her flat onto her back on the stone tiles of the courtyard floor.

Suddenly, Rey stood in a forest, watching as a young girl wept over a dead body. She felt this pain as if it were her own, feeling anger, desperation, fear, and intense grief from the child, who could not have been more than 12. In horror, Rey watched as the girl turned from her hunched position over the body, her face twisted in rage. As she looked behind her for the first time, she realized that two Jedi knights stood behind her. Rey sidestepped quickly out of the way as the girl threw up both her arms, knocking the two Jedi backwards into the trees. In one hand, she held a blaster, now pointed directly at the knights. Two quick rounds were fired, striking the Jedi both precisely in the head. Rey gasped in shock as the two slumped lifelessly to the forest floor, and the girl turned to her, noticing the unwelcome intruder on the scene.

In a single blink, Rey was back on the stone floor of the valley, and as she looked up, she saw a woman sitting cross legged on the base of the statue.

"Hello, Rey," the woman said, uncrossing her legs and leaping deftly into the ground, offering a hand to help Rey up off the ground. "I am Darth Zannah. I sense that you are here to learn from us."


	4. Chapter 4

Rey scrambled to her feet, waving away the hand of Zannah, both because she didn't want the help and also because she wasn't sure that she actually _could _take the hand of a ghost without just kind of phasing through her, which would probably be a little traumatizing for both of them.

"Yes," Rey replied after a brief pause, "I supposed I am here to learn. Are you here to teach?"

"Well no, actually I'm here because I'm buried here, and you kind of started messing with my grave. We haven't had anyone here in such a long time and I wanted to see what was going on. But I guess I can answer some questions if you have them, it's not like I have anything else to do right now."

"Wait, this statue is your grave? Are all of them graves?" Rey asked, suddenly very uncomfortable with the fact that she was standing in a giant graveyard.

"For anyone who had enough left of them to bury, yes. My master was buried here after I killed him, I was buried here after my apprentice killed me. This is the resting ground of the great Sith Lords," Zannah explained patiently.

"Hold on, you _killed _your master? Your apprentice killed _you?" _Rey asked in shock.

"Well yes. It is considered a display of the true completion of a Sith's training to be able to defeat their master. That's why my master, Darth Bane, implemented the rule of two. That there would only be one master and one apprentice at a time. It made things much more efficient, it ended senseless killing just to prove power, and gave a lot more structure to the Order," Zannah said, giving Rey a confused look, as if what she was saying made the most sense in the world.

Rey blinked a few times, processing this new information. She had assumed that the Sith killed just because they thought it was fun, or because they enjoyed being cruel. It had never occurred to her that there had been a reason that they slaughtered each other. The way Zannah spoke about it also struck her as odd. To her, this wasn't just killing people, it was how life was. It was accepted, and normal. As uncomfortable as it made Rey, it did soften her view of them slightly to realize that this wasn't about bloodlust, it was just about culture.

"So what's in there?" Rey asked, pointing to the large stone doors that stood closed at the end of the courtyard, carved into the side of the mountain, watched over on either side by the statues of Zannah and her master, Darth Bane.

"That's the Temple," Zannah answered. "I see you are full of questions, young Jedi."

Rey stopped for a moment, unsure how to proceed. She knew Zannah would be able to tell that she wasn't a Sith, but she hadn't expected her to give answers so willingly to someone she thought was a Jedi.

"Yes, I am. But I'm not here because of the Jedi, I'm here to learn about balance, and to do that I need both sides of the story. If I can ask, though, why would you give information about this place to a Jedi anyway?"

"I'm giving information because you're asking for it. Knowledge should be given to all who seek it, though I must warn you that I will not so freely give up anything else. If you try to take anything from the temples, you will not be treated so kindly."

Rey just nodded. She didn't necessarily intend on taking anything, but if she felt it would be necessary or helpful in bringing Ben back, she would not hesitate. Unfortunately, she didn't think that all the information she needed from this planet could be gained just by talking with Zannah, however much she disliked the idea of pissing off the only Sith (albeit a dead one) that had ever seemed like a half decent person to her.

"I doubt you do, but it's worth an ask anyways. Do you know anything about dyads?" Rey asked, really not expecting much in the way of an answer, since nobody else seemed to know.

Zannah paused, clearly taken aback by the question. "No one has asked about those for a very long time, Rey. What makes you so curious about the Je'daii myths?"

"The Je'daii?" Rey asked, "What's that?"

"I think you should perhaps take a seat, and I will explain what I know about the Je'daii and their myth of the dyad," Zannah said, taking a seat on the base of the statue and beckoning Rey to do the same. Rey complied somewhat reluctantly, pulling herself up onto the large stone block and sitting cross legged across from Zannah under the large likeness of her.

"The Je'daii were the inhabitants of the planet Tython a very long time ago. According to what little is known about them, they lived under the belief that as Force users, balance should be the key element of life. Therefore, they could draw power from both the light and the dark sides of the force, and sent those whose fell too far to either side to one of their twin moons to meditate until they restored inner balance. Je'daii who fell too far into darkness were sent to meditate on Ashla, the moon bathed in light, while users who dwelled too much on the light were sent to Bogan, the moon shrouded in darkness. I do not know what events led to this, but a schism emerged in the order of the Je'daii. Rightly, some of them believed that by investing all of their energy into one side of the Force and abandoning the other, they would be able to use more of its power more effectively. This led to two separate factions evolving and eventually leaving Tython to form orders of their own."

"The Sith and the Jedi," Rey added readily, enraptured by the tale.

"Yes, Rey. This is how the Sith and the Jedi came to be what they are now, or rather, what they were until rather recently. The Je'daii believed that eventually, the Force would fall so deep into imbalance that all factions would be destroyed. They believed that the only way to preserve the power of the Force would come about once both sides were left with only one defender, and that the two would come together to restore balance to Tython, and then to the Force. This belief led to the creation of another legend. The myth of the Force dyad," Zannah paused, giving Rey a moment to process this information. Rey's mind was moving faster than hyperspeed at this point, bouncing from thought to thought until finally it ground to a screeching halt at the one thing that truly mattered: Ben and her were this dyad, this pair of champions destined to bring balance to the Force and prevent its extinction.

"Of course, many pairs thought to have been this dyad have long since come and passed, and none of them were really the ones foretold. As I'm sure you know, Force bonds are relatively common among friends, family members, lovers, or even enemies. The bond is based on mutual shared emotions, so for friends, the bond is based on mutual respect and care, family members are bonded by shared responsibility and mutual relationships with other family members, and enemies are bonded by a shared hatred. This is not the same kind of bond a dyad shares. The bond of a dyad has been present since birth, often before it's halves have even met. Their bond allows one of them to feel the other's strongest emotions at first, then as the bond develops, usually thought to happen as they age and especially if they meet prior to the whole part about saving the Force, they are able to fully communicate with one another, to the point of being able to physically manifest in whatever location the other is at in order to talk. Of course, the Je'daii could never ascertain the names of the pair, or even when they were meant to be born, so that's really all anyone knows about it."

"What would happen if one of the halves was cut off from the Force or killed?" Rey asked, already dreading the answer she knew she would receive.

"Well I imagine the other would die or be cut off as well, and that it would be the catalyst for the extinction of the Force," Zannah answered "But as I said before, this is just a myth, there's nothing that has ever led us to believe that it's true."

"Right," Rey said, shaking her head to clear her mind. "So how do you know so much about this?"

"Well, unlike the Jedi, the Sith are not afraid of legends, even ones that may make us look bad. Because we understand that they are simply stories and they cannot hurt us. We find threats only in that which is capable of causing real harm to our way of life. We already know how we look to outsiders, and frankly we don't care. Our way of life is our own, we know that others don't like it or agree with it, but it belongs to us, not them, and that's really all that matters."

Rey found herself suddenly very concerned about how comfortable she felt talking with Zannah. She was so different than any servant of the Sith that Rey had met before that it made Rey wonder how accurate her perception of this situation and all of the previous ones bad been. Had she only met especially bad ones beforehand, or was Zannah a very convincing actress? Were the awful people that worked in service for the Sith manipulated and coerced into their service? If this was a manipulation tactic it was a very good one, which she wouldn't put past any Sith, but Zannah seemed so genuine and Rey didn't sense any kind of deception from her either, which only made her more confused.

"You really don't care that people think you're all evil? Doesn't that… I don't know… hurt your feelings or something?"

Zannah began to chortle, then burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, nearly toppling of the pedestal as she fell onto her back, covering her face with both hands as she continued to laugh gleefully at the absurdity of Rey's question.

"Sorry, sorry," she chuckled, sitting back up and wiping a few tears away. "It's just been so long since someone asked me about my feelings." She let out another few snickers and sighed heavily before looking back at her bewildered companion and continuing her answer. "It doesn't hurt my feelings at all that people think I or any other Sith are evil. Some of us really are, and I know they give us a bad reputation, but most of us were just normal people, living in this culture, learning about how to use the force. I think a lot of people just forget that darkness doesn't really equal evil, just as slight doesn't equal goodness. Let me ask you, Rey, do you think I'm evil?"


	5. Chapter 5

_Do you think I'm evil?_

Did she? She wasn't at all sure.

"How am I supposed to know whether you're evil?" Rey asked.

"I didn't ask what you know. I asked what you think," Zannah countered. "You saw that I killed those Jedi, you know that I killed my master and that I willingly allowed my apprentice to kill me. You know that I am a Sith. Do you think I'm evil? What do you _think_? What do you _feel? _Only you know the answer to that, and it's not something you need to weigh heavily. You _already know._"

Rey sighed, shaking her head as she realized that Zannah was right.

"No, I don't. I think you have made decisions and taken actions that I don't agree with, but to me, you don't _feel_ evil."

"And likewise, _you_ don't feel like a Jedi to me," Zannah said. Rey started to interject a defense, but Zannah held up a hand to let her finish her statement. "I have never met a Jedi who would come here willingly, let alone with a mind open and caring enough to _learn_ about us. The Jedi I have met have always been very one dimensional, only focused on doing what was morally right according to _their _rules, but you seem far more dynamic to me. I sense that you care more about intent than about righteousness and that you take far more into account than rules. I don't mean to offend you by saying that you don't seem like a Jedi, what I mean is that you just seem like much more than that to me. I think that it would be a waste for you to limit yourself to the narrow view of the Jedi. And again, don't misunderstand me, I don't mean to say you should join the Sith, either. We have our own limits. You just should not underestimate yourself and should not limit yourself just based on what others have told you is the right thing to do."

"Thank you," Rey said, somewhat uncomfortable with the sentiment, but still very touched by the gesture of friendship Zannah had extended to her. "I appreciate it."

"I think it's time to see the temple, if you have any interest in it."

Rey nodded, hopping off the side of the pedestal, joined by Zannah. Side by side, they walked to the towering stone doors of the temple.

"Are you ready?" Zannah asked, looking at Rey who nodded, although she wasn't at all sure that she really was. "Opening the doors will take both of us, these doors were designed to be opened by a master and an apprentice, but I think that a pair of friends will do just fine," she said, offering a warm smile to Rey.

A Sith friend. Rey almost burst into laughter at the outlandishness of the thought. But she would gladly call Zannah a friend. After all, she hadn't tried to kill her, which she figured was the Sith equivalent of a friendly greeting, and she had been very helpful and very nice to her.

" I think you're right," Rey said, smiling in return.

The pair raised their right hands, pulling open the doors, which gave an unholy screech as the rusted hinges creaked open for the first time in centuries.

"Wait," Zannah said as Rey went to step into the temple. "Before we go in, I have something I want to give you."

She held her hand up towards the statue of herself and a small, shiny object zoomed towards her from it's hand. She caught it, then held it in both hands examining it for a few moments, smiling softly, before handing it to Rey. It was a small silver pendant, well-worn and tarnished, but still wearable.

"My mother gave it to me when I was a child. It used to be my most treasured possession. But I think now it's time for it to have a new home. Staying here, in this dusty graveyard just isn't the right place for it. Please, take it with you. Think of it as a piece of me, and bring it to new worlds, new stories, a new life. And know that when you leave this place, as you have called on the spirits of the Jedi who came before you, if you call on me, I will answer."

"Thank you," Rey said, fastening the necklace around her neck, feeling almost ready to cry. "I'll take good care of it."

"Thank you," Zannah responded, stepping into the temple. "Now, let's go do some exploring, I haven't been in here in ages."

The two stepped into the temple and Rey ignited her saber so they (or at least she, since she didn't know if ghosts needed light to see) could see the way ahead of them.

The walls and ceiling were carved out of the side of the mountain, and huge cobwebs drooped from the ceiling like some sort of horrifying chandelier. It was cold there, but it oozed dark energy that made Rey's skin crawl. She could tell that horrible things had been done here.

"Yeah, it's pretty creepy in here, but I promise, there's nothing in here that will hurt you. Not while you're with me at least," Zannah reassured her as they stepped further into the temple.

After a few more moments, they came to a split in the corridor, with one large door to the left, one on the right, and a staircase leading down further into the mountain.

"Which way should we go?" Rey asked.

Zannah opened the door to their left, revealing a fairly large room. On the far wall, a large tapestry with the emblem of the Sith order hung above a stone table, on top of which lay a saber resting on a stand, a small stack of books, a medallion, and a dimly flickering hologram bust of a man in dark robes.

"This is the tomb of my master, Darth Bane," Zannah explained as they stepped inside.

"I thought he was buried under his statue outside?" Rey asked, following her into the chamber.

"Well, yes, he is. This is more of a memorial I suppose. His saber is here, his favorite books, a medallion he earned when he became a master, and a hologram of him. I used to come here a lot after I killed him. It was comforting, I think, to be able to be surrounded by his things when I asked him for advice. I guess you could call this an altar of sorts. A tangible connection made it easier for me to feel his presence."

Rey nodded in understanding. That was, after all, why she had gone to Ahch-To. It was just so much easier for her to talk to Master Luke there.

"But, I supposed there isn't much to dwell on here. Let's keep moving, I can come back in my own time, but nothing in here will help you," Zannah said, turning around and heading for the door. Rey could tell something there wasn't quite right, but she obviously wasn't in any position to make Zannah tell her anything she didn't want to disclose, so she simply followed her out the door.

"You should be careful where you step in here, it's been laid with many traps that the Sith residing here were taught to avoid, and I remember where most of them are, so pay very close attention to where I step. We wouldn't want you getting obliterated just for setting a foot down on the wrong spot," Zannah said, opening the other door. She took a short pause before stepping very carefully down the hall with Rey following in her exact footsteps, careful not to misstep.

When they reached the end of the hall, another door was waiting for them and Rey pushed it open. They stepped inside, and Rey was not at all pleased with what was there to greet them.

Slumbering in the middle of the room, a giant beast snored loudly. It was a Tuk'ata, a Sith Hound, with massive claws, fangs peeking out from its mouth, and large spines all the way down the length of its back. Rey had no idea how it had survived alone in here for so long, but she knew they would have to be absolutely silent if they wanted it to stay asleep.

Then the door slammed shut.

The hulking beast sprang awake, snarling and coiling back to pounce at Rey, who held her saber ready to strike it down. Zannah jumped in front of her, hissing at the beast in a language Rey couldn't understand,but assumed it must be the language of the Sith.

Immediately, the Tuk'ata dropped to the ground, lying perfectly still. Then, as Zannah approached it, it flopped onto it's back, wagging its tail as if it wanted it's belly scratched, to which Zannah happily obliged.

"You can pet him too if you want, Rey, he won't hurt you after I told him not to."

"No… I… I think I'm good over here… not doing that," Rey replied shakily. The very last thing she was going to do was pet that giant hound, no matter how much it seemed to adore Zannah.

Zannah gave the hound another command that Rey couldn't understand and it trotted off to the corner of the room where it sat watchfully, looking like a spiky, furry gargoyle.

"Sorry about him, but we couldn't just leave this room unguarded, not with what's in it. So, like everyone else, we got a guard dog."

"What could be so important that you need _that_ to keep it safe?" Rey asked, not taking her eyes off him.

"This is," Zannah said, walking to the far end of the room and picking up a large sword from it's display. "The Sword of Khashyun. It used to be sealed between the feet of a mummified Dowutin warrior, the last one to wield it, but eventually, as with most remains that are left in the open, he disintegrated and we didn't really have any more of them laying around, so instead it's just been left here with Tukky to guard it," she explained. So not only did she have a giant Sith Hound for a pet, it had a name, too. Of course.

"What's a Dowutin?" Rey asked, not even broaching the subject of the hound or the mummy.

"A sect of Sith warriors that lived here a very long time ago. They believed that lightsabers were the compensation tool of a weak warriors, so most of them fought with swords. This sword, the Sword of Khashyun, could only be wielded by the fiercest and strongest warriors. It's the only weapon ever forged that can cut through solid kyberite. But the Dowutin turned on each other, fighting so much over who would be the one to wield it, that it decimated their population. They believed it was cursed and sealed it here before the rest of the temple was built, and it's been here ever since, with all of the traps and the Tuk'ata to keep it from being used."

"May I?" Rey asked, unsure if Zannah would let her hold such an important relic.

"As I said before, you may not take anything from the temple, but you wouldn't get very far if you tried, not with him chasing you," she replied, modding in the direction of the Hound, before handing the sword to Rey.

It was cold and very heavy, and Rey could feel that horrible things had been done both with and for it. The unease this brought her almost made her drop it, but she managed to compose herself and then spent several long moments inspecting it, turning it over in her hands and running her hand along the side of the blade, before placing it back on it's stand.

"Thank you," she said, still very curious about the sword. She didn't know why, but she felt drawn to it, and she also had a very peculiar feeling that this would not be the last time she would be seeing it.

Zannah said one more thing to the Hound, who proceeded to lay back down in the center of the room and go back to sleep quicker than Rey thought was possible.

They carefully made their way back into the main corridor of the temple, and Rey stopped at the top of the staircase, ready to descend.

"Rey, wait," Zannah said, grabbing her by the arm. "Before we go down there, which I really don't think we should at all, I need you to know that it isn't a good place. It isn't a place I want to go back to or a place that I'm proud of. I know it may change how you think of me, but I gave you my word I would tell you anything you wanted to know about this place and I intend to hold true to that. I just want you to be prepared to face things you don't want to know."

Together, the two descended into a vast open chamber under the mountain. The doors at the bottom stood open already, the hinges broken at the top, making them impossible to close. There was a raised platform that ran across the other three walls of the room, and the platform on the wall opposite the door had a section that was higher than the rest, with one large throne in the center and a smaller one to its right. Zannah stopped short at the last step, seemingly frozen in place, and every step Rey took towards the center filled drowned her in a swirling sea of residual feelings from the people that had been here before her.

The moment Rey's feet planted in the center of the room, the screams began. Rey felt every single one of them. The terror, despair, hopelessness, and pain of every Jedi that had been slaughtered mercilessly in the very spot she now stood. She heard each scream, felt each year, from all of them. There were thousands of souls lost in this place, and the crushing pain she felt sent her toppling to her knees and gasping for air, burning tears streaming down her face.

"This was the execution chamber," Zannah said somberly. "Jedi prisoners were sacrificed here as a display of strength and loyalty to the Sith masters. So many people were killed senselessly in this place, and I'm so sorry that I had to bring you here."

"No," Rey said sharply, still on her knees, choking back sobs. "I needed to see this."


	6. Chapter 6

Rey was still frozen on the ground in the chamber when she felt it, a very dark presence had joined them in the room. Her head snapped up, looking for it's source, and she found it, sitting on the throne.

"Ah, my young apprentice. It has been many years since I have seen you, especially in this place," The robed figure croaked, removing his hood to reveal his face.

"Darth Bane," Zannah said, in shock.

"And look, you have brought me a gift, to restore my energy. How very _thoughtful_ of you," He smiled wickedly.

Rey tried to get up but found that she was unable to. The weight of what had happened here still echoing in her head kept her frozen to the spot. Suddenly, she felt someone grabbing her, pulling on her arm to get her up off the ground. It was Zannah, who had rushed in upon realizing what had happened, and knew they needed to get out of there. She pulled Rey to her feet and shoved her towards the door, which Darth Bane had began to push closed with the force.

Zannah threw up her hands, pushing back against the closing doors, but she knew that her power was not enough to counteract her master's for very long.

"Go, Rey! Get out of here! Get to your ship and get off this planet! Now!" She shouted. Rey stopped short and turned back to her just as the doors slammed closed, catching one last glimpse of her new friend. She didn't want to leave her there, but she knew she didn't have time to stick around and try to help. Besides, she didn't think that Bane could actually hurt Zannah, unlike his ability to hurt Rey, since Zannah was a ghost.

She sprinted out the doors or the temple, blinded by the sunlight in the courtyard. A stray rock sent Rey tumbling through the air and she slammed to the ground, skidding several feet along the pavement as she did before finally coming to a stop. She stood quickly and continued her dash to the X-wing, ignoring the searing pain in her ankle, not to mention the blood she felt dripping out of the many scrapes she had just acquired. She threw up the canopy of the ship and hopped in, her hands moving almost mechanically around the dash of the ship, sending the engine whirring to life. She pulled down the canopy, threw on her helmet, and lifted off the ground, taking one last look at the entrance of the temple before speeding off into space.

Rey needed medical attention and she knew it. Her ankle, while probably not broken, definitely wasn't going to be able to hold weight once the adrenaline cleared out of her system, and she would definitely need to at least get the rubble removed from the friction burns and other cuts she'd gotten in her tumble.

She sent a transmission to Yavin IV, letting them know she was on her way, and hoping that Finn or Poe was there, she wanted to see them before she headed back out. Thankfully, the X-wings were equipped with a hyperdrive, but it would still take her about 8 hours to get there, and she wasn't happy about that at all.

"Red Five, you're cleared for landing," came the crackling voice through the comm. This brought a smile to Rey's face as Yavin and it's many moons finally came into view as she dropped out of hyperspace.

She touched down gently in the clearing, nearly asleep after the day she'd had. She tossed open the canopy and dragged herself out of the starfighter, and just as she'd thought, her ankle crumpled under her, sending her to the ground as Poe ran up to greet her. Her vision began to swim as she hit the floor, her limbs also refusing to cooperate. Finally, she went limp just as Poe reached her, tossing himself into his knees next to her and checking for a pulse.

"I need a medic over here!" He shouted back towards the base. Two women carrying a stretcher came rushing over, clearly already ready, since it never failed that any craft landing on the base was always carrying at least one injured person, though at least this one wasn't also on fire. They loaded her on the stretcher and rushed her to the med bay, with Poe following closely behind.

_"Rey! Can you hear me? Did you make it out okay?"_ Despite her the unconscious state of her body, Rey could still hear her clearly through the force.

_"Yes,"_ Rey answered, _"I made it to the Rebel base, but I'm pretty sure I'm unconscious. I had a nasty fall on my way out, I think I'll be alright though." _

_"Good,"_ she replied, _"I'll talk to you again when you wake up."_

Zannah's presence was gone from Rey's mind, but there was another one there too, a much weaker one that Rey had to strain to hear.

_"Are… there? Rey?... Can… hear me?"_ The voice called out. She recognized it immediately.

_"Ben! Where are you? Are you alright?"_ She called back, filled with a rush of joy.

_"Mostly fine… don't...where I am...hard to… any message… to you. I'm stuck here… don't think… be able… talk for long…"_ and then he was gone.

Rey woke with a start, gasping for air. Poe, who was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, rushed over, grabbing her hand.

"Rey! Rey? You alright kid?" He asked, leaning over the side of the bed to look her in the eye.

"Huh? Oh.. uh.. yeah, I'm okay I think," Rey answered, sounding dazed.

"Good, because you look like shit," he answered with a chuckle that made her smile. "You really did a number on yourself. Where were you anyway?"

"Moraband," she answered, "Took a pretty nasty tumble on my way out." She moved a hand up to rub the side of her neck and noticed that Zannah's pendant was gone. "Where's my necklace? Was it still on when I got here?"

"This thing?" Poe asked, holding it up for her to see. "They needed to take it off to scan you and make sure you didn't break your neck." He handed it back to her and she quickly put it back on, wincing in pain as she lifted her head. "And Moraband? Like, the Sith homeworld, Moraband?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "How bad did I hurt myself?" She asked with a small laugh.

"Pretty bad kid, they had to put your ankle back where it's supposed to go, you have a nasty concussion from what I understand, and well, maybe don't look in a mirror for a while. But you didn't break anything, as far as I know, so you should be up and kicking pretty soon."

Rey raised a hand up to her face to see what he meant and realized that almost the whole left side of it was covered in gauze, and also that her left eye had apparently swollen halfway shut, although she wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed it sooner.

The door opened and Finn ran in, panting heavily. "Rey! You're okay? What happened to you?"

"I tripped on a rock."

"You tripped. On a rock," Finn repeated, sounding very doubtful.

"What can I say, I can't be graceful all the time. Besides, I just needed an excuse to come back here and see my best friends," she teased.

"I mean you could have just called, you didn't need to rip half your face off just to talk to us," he laughed. "How long are you staying?"

"I'm heading out again as soon as the medic clears me, I guess. I just managed to talk to Ben for a few seconds while I was unconscious, and he sounded like he was in pretty bad trouble, so I really need to find him."

Poe cleared his throat and looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the subject.

"When did you start wearing jewelry?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow at her necklace.

"It was a gift. An heirloom, I guess you could say," she said with a laugh.

"A gift? Your new Sith boyfriend is giving you jewelry now, huh? Don't you think that's moving a little fast?" Finn teased.

"He's not my boyfriend, and he didn't give it to me. It was from a friend," Rey said defensively.

"New friend, huh? Do we get to meet them?" Poe asked.

"Maybe later," Rey answered. Getting them to be civil with Ben would be enough of a challenge, but Zannah was a whole ballpark that she was nowhere near ready for.

"Am I interrupting?" Came a voice from the door. It was the medic, carrying a brace of some kind and a few small bottles.

"No, not at all," Poe said, stepping back from the bed as Finn did the same.

"Now, Rey, since you're awake, I have a few things to discuss with you," she said, setting the items down on the counter. "You dislocated your ankle, and it should be alright to walk on now that we've popped it back into place, but you'll need to wear a brace until it heals up. We've also had to stitch up a few lacerations. One on your leg, and another above your left eyebrow. The swelling on your eye should go down within a few hours, but you'll need to stay here until that happens in case it doesn't. There's two ointments here to put on the friction burns, and another to put on the lacerations. They need to be done once a day to prevent infection. I would recommend staying on the base until they all heal, but I know you won't do that, so just ensure that the ointments are applied appropriately and that you wear the brace, and make sure you check in with me before you leave and again when you return. Do you have any questions?"

Rey shook her head, and the medic left the room, shutting the door behind her.

The minutes crawled by in agonizing impatience for Rey. A med bay bed was the last place she would want to be at any time, but with so much at stake and having so little time to fix this mess, she could hardly stand to stay there. Every fiber of her being was itching to ignore the medic, run out the door, get in the X-wing, and go find Ben, especially now that she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was alive. Poe and Finn stayed with her the whole time, but it didn't make the time pass any faster. They helped fit the brace on her ankle and helped her walk around the room until she got used to it.

She had tasked Poe with grabbing her satchel from the X-wing, which contained the Jedi texts. In the extra time she sat waiting, she scoured them for any information she could find about Tython, which is where Master Yoda had said she should go after Moraband, and she had a nagging feeling that Ben was trapped there as well.

After about an hour of searching, she finally saw something that seemed like a lead. The Martyrium of Frozen Tears. A Force confessional chamber in the Meridional Ice Cap of Tython. That's where she needed to go. She wasn't sure how she knew, she just _knew_.

Finally, the medic came back in to clear her. She removed the bandages and offered her a mirror to look at the wounds on her face. She had split the left side of her forehead open from about a half inch below her hairline all the way to the bottom of her eyebrow, and she had a large friction burn along her jawline. Poe was right, she'd really done a number on her face, but at least the swelling had gone down. The medic showed her which ointment went where, and cleaned and rewrapped the rest of the injuries. At last, she was cleared to leave the med bay. Poe, Finn, and the medic had all tried to convince her to stay, but between her anxiousness to find Ben and the several hours she'd spent unconscious, she was too antsy to stay on Yavin IV for another day. She loaded up her supplies in the X-wing and hopped in, looking at Poe for the okay.

"Red Five, you're clear for take-off."


	7. Chapter 7

"Why did it have to be an ice cap. Of all places in the galaxy, of course it had to be an ice cap," Rey grumbled angrily to herself as she trudged through the snow. She had decided to forgo her usually breezy clothes in exchange for thick, fur lined boots, two pairs of long pants, two shirts, a coat, and Master Luke's cloak which he had given her when she returned to Ahch-To after his death, and had hoped that it would help shield her from the wind. Somehow, despite all of this, she was still shivering the moment her feet hit the planet's surface and she was not a single bit happy about it. She could already feel her face and fingers burning with the cold, which made her wince in discomfort, but despite her dislike of the planet and the situation, she knew she couldn't turn back. There was too much at stake. But still, Ben would definitely get an earful about this later.

After a few more minutes of hiking up the frozen mountain, she finally found what she was looking for. There was a large cave opening in the side of the mountain probably only a half hour trek from where she was, if you took the deep snow and blasting wind into account.

When she reached the cave entrance, she stopped to rest, taking a seat against the wall. She cupped her hands up near her mouth and blew on them several times, rubbing them together to try and return some of the feeling to them._ 'No matter how much I hated Jakku, at least it was warm there,'_ she thought. The hour she'd been on Tython so far was already more than enough to tell that she hated the cold with a passion, and was more than ready to find Ben and get the hell out of there. Once she could feel her hands again, she wiped the sticky, melted and refrozen snow away from her face and hair. It wasn't much warmer inside the cave than outside, but at least she wasn't being buffeted by the wind and frozen by the snow. Her ankle ached horribly in the brace, since apparently hiking is deep snow in a frozen mountain wasn't good physical therapy for a dislocation.

She sighed heavily as she stood back up, slinging her satchel over her shoulder. Limping slightly, she ventured further into the cave, igniting her saber for light and warmth. The cave continued in a mostly straight path, sloping slightly downward as she moved farther in, and she'd been walking for about ten minutes when she heard it. Faint knocks echoing through the cave.

She knew immediately that it was Ben, and took off running towards the source of the sound. The cave widened the closer she got to the heart of the mountain, until it was more like a gaping cavern. The downward incline of the floor increased suddenly, causing Rey to lose her footing on a patch of ice and sending her sliding on her back down the incline until the floor flattened out, right at the bottom of a large stone pedestal. She grabbed the edge of it, hoisting herself off the ground, and she winced as she rubbed her back. She hadn't hurt herself like last time, at least, but she would definitely be sore for a few days, not that she wasn't already.

Taking in her surroundings, she realized that she was standing at the back of a huge chamber. The pedestal that she had used to stand up was the base of a large statue, which was mirrored by another statue several feet away. Their backs were turned to Rey and they appeared to be keeping watch over the large glowing object in the center of the chamber.

Rey recognized it immediately from the pictures in the Jedi texts as the Martyrium of Frozen Tears. She walked towards it, its blue light casting a soft glow across the chamber. She stood for a moment staring at it in wonder, bright blue light reflecting from her eyes.

A fist slammed against the wall of the Martyrium from the inside, breaking Rey from her trance. She ran the rest of the distance to it, slamming her hands against its side.

"Ben?" She called out. "Is that you?"

"Rey? How did you find me?" Came Ben's muffled shout from inside. "There's no door, I can't get out."

Rey pushed out with the force, but Ben was right, there was no opening she could use to let him out. With a frustrated sigh, she ignited her saber once more and prepared to cut a doorway open. As much as she hated to destroy such an important piece of history, getting Ben out safely was far more important right now. But Rey realized as soon as her saber touched the wall of the Martyrium, that she didn't have the right tools to cut it open. She hadn't considered it before, but it made perfect sense that a lightsaber wouldn't be able to cut through the same thing it was made of. Of course, that also meant that she needed to think of another way to get Ben out, and fast.

"What was that thing Zannah said about that sword?" Rey asked herself, knowing it had something to do with this place.

"It can cut through solid kyberite," came the reply from behind her. Rey wheeled around to find Zannah herself standing behind her with a smirk.

"Zannah!" She exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Bailing you out. Again," she answered smugly. "You did ask me a question, after all. I told you I'd answer, and it's not like I had a lot going on."

"I mean, you answered me, but that hardly seems like bailing me out. I don't have the sword, especially since you would've killed me for taking it."

"You're right, I would have," she admitted. "But I didn't say I wouldn't bring it to you," she added, straining for a moment before the sword clattered onto the ground. Zannah disappeared as it did, though, the exertion of using the force to transport the sword had been far more than she'd expected, and she didn't have enough energy to continue to manifest there afterwards.

Rey picked up the massive sword, turning it over a few times to convince herself fully that it really was there, before grabbing it by the hilt and preparing to pierce the Martyrium with it.

"Ben, stand back from this wall. I have a plan, and I don't want to accidentally stab you," Rey warned him, waiting a few seconds before plunging the sword all the way to the hilt into the wall, sending huge cracks out from the point of impact in every direction. Rey yanked the sword back out and set it on the ground. She braced herself, then slammed her shoulder into the cracked section, which gave way and sent her toppling into the confessional.

She righted herself quickly, looking around frantically until her eyes landed on Ben. He was leaning against the far side of the small chamber, wearing a set of grey robes, the biggest smile Rey had ever seen on his face.

She ran toward him, ignoring the searing pain in her shoulder and ankle, nearly toppling both of them over onto the ground as she threw her arms around him, tears streaming down her face. Unlike Rey, Ben appeared to have been healed of his wounds from the battle on Exegol, the leg he had definitely broken before was not so much as crooked now, and it didn't seem to hurt him at all.

"Rey," he said softly as he returned her embrace, looking close to tears himself, "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Well that was stupid of you, wasn't it?" She teased, looking up at him and brushing the hair away from his eyes.

"Yeah," he laughed, "I guess it was." He paused for a moment, taking in her appearance. "Robes suit you," he said before gently pulling her hood back so he could see her face better, but gasped in shock when he saw the cut and friction burns. "What happened?"

"Oh just a little skirmish on Moraband. Don't worry though, I showed that rock who's boss," Rey joked, brushing off his concern.

"Somehow, I doubt that," he chuckled, stroking the uninjured side of her face with his thumb, the rest of his hand curled gently around the side of her head. They stood like that for several moments, just enjoying the feeling of being reunited, before Rey suddenly bounced up onto her tip-toes and kissed him softly, smiling as she pulled away. Ben grinned, and leaned down, returning the favor, though somewhat more aggressively.

"As much as I would love to stay here doing this all day," Rey said, pulling away and stepping back out of their embrace, "We probably should get going. We certainly can't stay here forever." She stepped out of the confessional and picked up the sword before turning back to Ben and offering him her hand.

"Shall we?" She asked.

"If we have to," Ben laughed, taking her hand for the first time.

They started the trip out of the cave at a fairly quick pace, but the adrenaline soon cleared out of Rey's bloodstream and her ankle was really starting to trouble her, making her limp return and making every step feel excruciating despite the brace that was supposed to be helping with the pain. They made it about halfway to the exit when Rey took a step and her leg crumpled underneath her. Ben caught her before she hit the ground and helped her walk to the wall, supporting most of her weight as she sat on the stone floor. She pulled her boot and brace off to find that her ankle had swollen to nearly twice the size it should have been.

"Well that doesn't look good," she commented dryly, poking at it and wincing in pain, although she wasn't sure what she had expected to happen.

"When did that happen?" Ben asked in concern, sitting down next to her.

"When I was leaving Moraband. I dislocated it and had it set by a medic at the base. She said it would hurt, but that walking on it should have been okay with the brace on," Rey replied, frowning.

"What were you even doing on Moraband?" Ben asked. "You should never have gone there."

"Well you should be glad I did or you would still be trapped. Master Yoda said I should go there seeking balance. I met with the ghost of a Sith master named Zannah, who explained to me about the dyad and about the Je'daii who lived on this planet before the schism in the force that created the Sith and the Jedi. She's the one who gave me this sword and also gave me this necklace. Not that it was helpful, it's just nice to have made a friend, even a ghost one," she summarized, rolling her eyes slightly at his protective nature. She was tired of everyone telling her where she should and shouldn't go to keep her safe, she was an adult and could handle it herself.

"Well, I'm glad you're alright. I think I'd like to meet this Zannah person as well," Ben replied. "And the necklace suits you."

"Thanks," Rey smiled as she strapped the brace back onto her ankle and pulled her boot back on. "You ready to keep moving?" When Ben nodded his reply, Rey stood, careful not to put too much weight on her bad ankle. After a few steps of limping, though, Ben couldn't stand to see her hobble around in pain, so despite her initial protests, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her towards the exit.

Rey continued to complain about this indignity of being carried almost the whole way down the mountainside, but Ben wouldn't have it, and told her that if she kept squirming she was going to make him drop her. The thought of landing in the snow was enough to at least make her sit still, but she still continued to pout about it. She had to admit, though, that this way definitely was much faster than she could've gotten down the mountain, not that she would ever tell Ben that. Plus, this way was warm.

"Hey, uh, Rey?" Ben said, interrupting their idle conversation. "I think we're going to have a problem."

"What's wrong?" Rey asked as he set her back on her feet.

"Your X-wing only has one seat."


End file.
